June 14, 2017

West Coast R/C Works servo setup tools

West Coast R/C Works have announced their new product line of servo setup tools for touring and pan cars. The tools are designed to offer much greater accuracy when aligning the car’s servo horn or servo saver compared to the standard “eye balling” method. The 1/8 and 1/10 servo straight edge and pan car servo straight edge tools work together with a protractor or other measuring tools to set the correct servo trim resulting in an increased repeatability of this process. Drivers can also prepare several servos for one R/C car to be used during fast repairs at big events without having to worry that the servo trim needs to be reset. The pan car servo setup system is composed of two pan car servo centring tools and one servo straight edge. The servo setup system contains all necessary parts to install the servo in the centre and set the desired angle, which improves the repeatability of this process.

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June 14, 2017

JJ & Rick Wang bring home KO Grand Prix wins

The Greater L.A. Radio Control Racing Club recently hosted the 2017 KO Grand Prix with the event attracting over 100 entries. Mugen Seiki Racing’s JJ Wang was the top qualifier in the premier 1/8th Open class and JJ would also bring home the victory in the very close 30-minute A-main that was decided mainly by the tyre strategy as JJ stayed on the same set of tyres while runner-up, Xray’s Mike Swauger, opted to change tyres. Behind the two, Mugen’s Robbie Cerrato and Tony Clark would round out the overall top 4 result. Elsewhere in the 1/8th Sportsman class Rick Wang would bring home the win while Dana Smeltzer came out fastest in the 1/8th Masters main.

View the Sportsman and Masters podiums here


June 14, 2017

SMJ Kabuto tuned buggy & on-road exhaust sets

Speedmaster Japan have introduced two new exhaust sets for 1/8th off-road and on-road applications in the form of the SMJ Kabuto tuned silencer sets. Starting with the off-road specific exhaust, the silencer is based on the T2060 SC pipe and it was designed to match perfectly with the Kabuto XB2 engine. It is usable for buggy and truggy racing and comes including manifold, gaskets and mounting springs. Also new is an on-road specific set based off of the T2080 SC exhaust. It will match the Kabuto R21 engine and just like the off-road set contains a suitable manifold, gaskets and springs. Both sets are EFRA homologated and they will hit stores soon.

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June 13, 2017

Kurzbuch & Lüscher win Rd3 of Swiss Nats

Last weekend the 3rd round of the Swiss nationals took place under summer conditions at the AMCS track in Schaffhausen. Already in practise the drivers noticed the high tyre wear and that the right strategy would be important for the finals. In the 1/8th scale class it was Simon Kurzbuch (Shepherd/Novarossi) winning 3 out of 4 qualifying rounds to take the TQ for the main final. Silvio Hächler (ARC/OS) won the super pole to join his friend and rival at the front of the starting grid by outpacing Jürg Nydegger (Shepherd/OS) by fractions of a second. In the main final Simon showed another great performance. Only during the tyre changes Silvio could take over the lead for some laps. In the closing stage Silvio suffered a flame-out so Simon took it easy for the final laps and crossed the finishing line in first position followed by Silvio Hächler with Luca Martinelli taking the final podium spot.

Continue reading the report here


June 13, 2017

Willert dominates Class 2 at Mid-German Nats Rd2

The second round of the Mid-German nationals was held at the MSC Kirchheim track. Shepherd driver Christian Willert was the man to beat in the 1/8 class 2 group which was the biggest class with 26 participants. In qualifying he was fastest to take the TQ lining up at the front of the grid for the main final. As in qualifying the first 4 drivers directly advance to the main final also his Shepherd colleague Markus Friedrich claimed a spot for the final in 4th position.
The main final was a clearr-cut affair for Christian as he was leading unchallenged from the start to the checkered flag. He crossed the finishing line 5 laps in front of Sven Lienhop with Markus Friedrich completing the podium another lap down, both also running a Velox V8 making it a full Shepherd podium.

Source: Shepherd [team-shepherd.com]


June 13, 2017

Western German Championship Rd3 report

The fast 310-metre track of Hamm was the arena for round three of the Western German Championship for the 1/8 and 1/10 scale nitro classes. A total of 57 nitro racers made their entry and were welcomed by excellent weather with temperatures up to 30 degrees. Following intensive practice on Saturday, the heat was on to qualify for the German Nationals on Sunday.

Continue reading the report here


June 13, 2017

Serpent 4X vertical top-deck option

New for the Serpent 4X comes this double vertical top-deck and top-deck stiffeners. The new top-deck is the base for all the new flex options and it consists of two equal shaped vertical oriented 2.5mm carbon fibre plates. The plates are connected to the front and rear suspension with a machined aluminium adaptor plate and unlike flat top-decks, the vertical oriented double top-deck still allows for a lot of linear torsional flex, but basically eliminates any longitudinal tweaking and reduces torsional tweak drastically. It can be run in addition to the kit aluminium centre stiffener. The H-shaped stiffener plate can be removed when the top-deck is used to create more flex in the front and rear section of the car. To stiffen up the assembly further, there are two top-deck stiffeners available which connect the vertical double top-deck to the centre stiffener/motor mount assembly. Both can be used individually, to tune front and rear flex individually.

Source: Serpent [serpent.com]


June 12, 2017

Schumacher BTCC Rd3 – Report

The Schumacher BTCC series Rd3 moved on to the midlands based Stafford track this weekend. Over the four classes there were some epic battles across the board. In modified the usual suspects Olly Jefferies, Elliott Harper and Chris Grainger were battling it out for top spot in what were tricky conditions for the high powered cars. Super high winds and lower traction after overnight rain made it tough for the competitors. Olly pipped Elliott for overall TQ by less than a second after the tie break of two wins each, Chris Grainger qualified third. In the two legged finals Olly took the wins ahead of Elliott with Zak Smith coming from 4th on the grid up to 3rd overall.

Continue reading the report here